Golden Dreams
Hi! My name is Paul. This will be my first entry as a guest writer for Motivate2Inspire. If you’re a regular, you know that Michael is an inspirational person as is. But what makes him great is that he takes time out of his life to share with the world. I am thankful for Mike to give me the opportunity to take a shot at blogging again – with hopes that our readers can take some little piece of motivation along with them throughout the day.
Golden Dreams was the name I had thought up of if I were ever to write a book about my life once I became famous and successful. Well, I figure why wait. “Golden” has a lot of meanings to me. As a graduate from Notre Dame, it’s easy to make the correlation that the Golden Dome has been a symbol of faith and hope in my life. I think it’s also been a beacon of guidance for me – with Mary at the top pointing towards love and life. “Golden Dreams” also shares a correlation with California. Disney actually made a short movie called Golden Dreams with Whoopi Goldberg. It went over the history of California and the people that made it is what it is today. So in ways, that same journey is what I aspired to go on.
My dream job has always been to work for Disney. For the longest time, I felt I knew I wanted to work for the “magic” company. The one that believes in family fun and imagination. The one company that when times are tough, you can remember your favorite Disney movie. It is a company that I felt aligned with my world view. The problem with having a dream job though is that you remember that at the end of the day – it’s still a job. It’s still hard work. It’s a corporation with financial goals and things that need to work right. It’s also a company where millions of people probably have had the same passion to work for. Kinda like Google.
I don’t think that I’ve had a change of heart. I still want to work for Disney someday, but I’m not convinced that I want to go work for them right now. There are a lot of other important things that I can be doing with my life – like learning to just be me and love my life for what it is. Sometimes when you aspire to do or be something right away and get that instant gratification, you end up losing yourself in the process. “Golden” to me is that journey between the extremes. It’s the sweet spot we live in life that is just above pushing the edge of the fence, but below ramming yourself so hard into the fence that you’re all messed up. In the Cretan tale of Icarus, his father warns him to “fly the middle course” above the sea’s sprays and below the sun’s heat. Well, if you’ve ever heard that story, you know that Icarus flew too high into the sun’s heat and the wax on his wings melted causing him to fall to his death. That’s one extreme. The other extreme are those people who become afraid of life and feel they are so out of control of what happens around them. That’s not good either.
I want to change all that. “Life doesn’t get easier. You just get better.” I believe in that statement 100%. As a young businessman in one of the worst recessions, you’ve got to continue to get better or you’re not going to be competitive in this ever evolving world around us. Sometimes the process of getting better includes the ability to be open minded and conscious of living in the moment. How can we get better? How can we grow stronger? In this next year, I’m going to dedicate some of my time to share my stories and reflections on life. Let’s do this together, shall we?
